Future Grace

At our church meeting last Sunday, Llew Moore spoke about his Christian walk and it was wonderful and amazing to hear of the powerful work of God through the many ups and downs of life.  One of the points made by Llew was the significance of future grace in his life. Llew was impacted by the book by John Piper called "Future Grace". John Piper prefaces his book by referring to his mother and the way that she saturated him in the Scriptures. He said that her favourite quote was from Proverbs 3:5-6 "Trust in the Lord with all your heart; and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths". Piper makes the point that in this passage there is a call to live by faith in future grace. He says that his mother "called me to trust the Lord and she showed me that the focus of my trust is what God promised to do for me in the future".

Llew's talk was a great reminder of God's future grace. As we look back we can see many of the works that God has done in our lives that were unclear at the time and can have confidence by faith in his future grace.

The Tabernacle

We have been learning about worship and how to present our bodies as a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1) as we offer all we have to God. The Tabernacle of God, the plans of which were given to Moses in great detail (see Exodus 25-32) is critical to our understanding of God and what he has set in place so that we can approach him. It also helps us to understand the new covenant in Jesus' blood (see Hebrews 8 and 9). Great detail was provided to Moses by God about the design of the tabernacle and the tent of meeting for His people in the wilderness. As we look at each element, we can see a foreshadowing of Jesus. The link below provides brief information on each of the elements in the tabernacle and their significance.
The Tabernacle

Reading God's Mind

Last Sunday at Boloco we had the last of what have been excellent sessions from Buddy Owens focusing on worship. The last session was based around the importance of the Word of God - the Bible. Buddy pointed out that for our minds to be renewed (Romans 12:1-2), we need to read God's mind and we can do this through His word. He used a great analogy of a teabag in a cup of warm water - if we just dip it in for a few seconds there is no change but if the teabag is left in for 15 minutes, the water changes. His point was that is we are prepared to read God's word and let it soak into our souls, we will be changed as we put on the mind of Christ. He provided a very practical approach to reading the Bible, based on driving around for an outing and I have put these points into a link to use which may help people in the Bible reading:
Reading God's Mind

God's Pursuit

We had a wonderful testimony from Paul Davies, a friend from Sydney who moved with his wife Denise from the UK a couple of years ago. Paul told the story of his conversion at the age of around 22 and the change from a disaffected and traumatised young man - to a man of God. He had gone along to a Christian rally at the Empire theatre in Liverpool with his wife but it was only to see the theatre where people like Frank Sinatra and the Beatles had played. There was a bomb scare and the theatre was cleared and he didn't want to go back in but wanted to go to the pub. He was persuaded by his wife to go back but he didn't really understand the talk which was given by a famous evangelist - David Watson - but prayed a prayer at the end of the meeting, inviting Jesus to come into his life. He describes on the talk (click on the Listen tab and then Sunday talks) the extraordinary change in that moment and then going forward to the front of the meeting. His life changed in that moment and has remained extraordinary in his and Denis's walk with God which eventually brought them to Australia. It reminded me of how God pursues us in the midst of all the "stuff" that happens in our lives (see Romans 8:28).